Reporting @ 2016 Iowa Caucus

Here I am on the left, deep in my work and wearing my biz-casual J. Crew button up.

My professional journalism career began in earnest between 2015 and 2016. I had just returned from studying abroad the previous spring. Now in early 2016 with the Presidential Election ramping up, I found myself packed into one of four vans with other student journalists and political science students to traverse Iowa for the next three days, chasing shots, stories, and the chance to work alongside journalists from around the globe.

Here we are above in the CNN (?) headquarters in Downtown Des Moines. Rows and rows of tables with outlets for blogging, tweeting, editing and uploading with a solid WiFi connection.

It was exciting to be in these major halls and rubbing elbows with international journalists. I ran into a radio reporter from FranceInfo, overheard a few foreign reporters gabbing about their travels at a coffee shop, and saw Lester Holt set up his famous newsdesk from a combination cafe-antique store.

My resulting byline was a round-up of the coffee shops of the caucuses, giving a peek into the mobile newsroom culture of the unique event that hits the Hawkeye State every four years.